11–20 of 23 posts
Seems to be a combination of cost-of-living and demand. Consider the following cost-of-living comparison between Vancouver and Seattle: Consumer Prices in Seattle, WA are 20.02% higher than in Vancouver Consumer Prices Including Rent in Seattle, WA are 22.54% higher than in Vancouver Rent Prices in Seattle, WA are 26.38% higher than in Vancouver Restaurant Prices in Seattle, WA are 19.51% higher than in Vancouver Gro…
Miserable salary? Miserably long depressing winters? Thanks, but no thanks.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you have more accurate figures, by all means post them. But it's going to take a lot to span a gap this broad. For what it's worth, both Vancouver and Toronto were rated as "severely unaffordable" in the 14th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2018. https://fcpp.org/wp-content/uploads/dhi2018-fcpp.pdf
You can consider things like the cost of health care (usually moot as big companies in the US will pay for all of your insurance costs), and education for your kids. What’s the tuition difference between top tier schools in the US and Canada? What about primary school? I hear many people in the US pay to send their kids to private primary and secondary schools. If you are raising a family in the US those are lots of…
Canada's few top tier schools, are second tier schools in the US, barely. Canada has only a few schools that compare to the University of Virginia, UNC or Michigan. The US has dozens of schools like that, eg: USC, UCLA, Florida, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, Tulane, Pepperdine, Northeastern, Georgia, Boston, GIT, BC, NYU, Tufts, Wake Forest, Wisconsin Madison, Texas, Villanova, Penn State, Ohio State etc.
A bunch of those second tier schools cost $9k to $12k per year in-state tuition + fees. UNC is $9k, Florida is $6k. A four year degree will get you a $85k to $100k per year career as an engineer. You can pay for half of your tuition cost before you graduate with part-time work.
You can go to Berkely for $14k in-state. A degree from there in something of value in engineering, and you can write your ticket. You can easily pay off your education in a few years, and have an elite career that pays a top 3% income.
We have the same issue here in Australia.
I wouldn't live in DC or New York for those wages but Vancouver might not be too bad for the pay there and I know of places where you could get by on less than 60k and live quite a bit better than any of those for the wages listed. I live in one.
The measurement that really needs to be considered is "quality of life" and that is easy to overlook. I wouldn't live in DC or New York for those wages but Vancouver might not be too bad for the pay there and I know of places where you could get by on less than 60k and live quite a bit better than any of those for the wages listed. I live in one.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can consider things like the cost of health care (usually moot as big companies in the US will pay for all of your insurance costs), and education for your kids. What’s the tuition difference between top tier schools in the US and Canada? What about primary school? I hear many people in the US pay to send their kids to private primary and secondary schools. If you are raising a family in the US those are lots of…
There are no top tier schools in Canada. That's one of the problems. There's no Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Brown, Duke, Chicago, Columbia, Penn, CIT, Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, et al. Canada's few top tier schools, are second tier schools in the US, barely. Canada has only a few schools that compare to the University of Virginia, UNC or Michigan. The US has dozens of schools like that, eg: USC,…
Waterloo, for example, has a co-op program that (at least when I attended it years ago) had me graduating debt-free, with built-up savings, and 2 years of tech. experience (including in SV). Many of my peers went to work for MS, Google, or Amazon (the big players at the time) right after graduation. Basically, if you wanted to go south of the border, you could, but of course many want to stay in Canada. I think similar opportunities are there for students from Toronto and other institutions. Accounting for population difference, I don't think the gap is that massive.
Also, Sam Altman is a big fan :)
While researching his piece Bruni spoke with Sam Altman, the president of Y Combinator, one of the best-known providers of seed money for tech startups.
Bruni asked him if any one school stood out in terms of students and graduates whose ideas took off. “Yes,” Altman responded. Bruni was prepared to hear Altman tout his alma mater Stanford. After all it’s famous as a feeder of Silicon Valley success.
But Altman surprised him: “The University of Waterloo.”
I'm remote. so I've found contracting to American companies to be best case scenario. Particularly when the our dollar is lower.
Like everything it is a factor of supply and demand. On the demand side there is not as great a demand from employers for software engineers in Canada, on the supply side immigration is considerably easier into Canada for software engineers. Less demand and greater supply = lower wages. We have the same issue here in Australia.
My dad also worked in software back in the day in Toronto and he was also rarely less than 100k.